


wyvern dance

by jikkyuu



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Blood and Violence, Bonding, Established Relationship, FE3H Kinkmeme, Fluff, M/M, Post-Timeskip | War Phase (Fire Emblem: Three Houses), Pre-Timeskip | Academy Phase (Fire Emblem: Three Houses), Serious Injuries, Teasing, Wyverns
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-13
Updated: 2020-09-29
Packaged: 2021-03-06 15:33:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,968
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26441266
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jikkyuu/pseuds/jikkyuu
Summary: Golden Deer students are known for their universal disregard for official regulations or limitations. But even among them, there’s one unwritten rule that everybody adheres to, without fail:Do not try to touch Claude’s wyvern, lest you’re prepared to lose your arm.The problem is, Claude realizes with dread as he steps into wyvern stables for the evening feeding, that no one seemed to let Sylvain know about it.
Relationships: Sylvain Jose Gautier/Claude von Riegan
Comments: 16
Kudos: 142
Collections: FE3H Kink Meme





	1. 1181

**Author's Note:**

> prompt can be found [here](https://3houseskinkmeme.dreamwidth.org/1608.html?thread=2183752).
> 
> i owe kinkmeme my life, but i can't write smut, so yeah. have a gen unbeta'ed claudevain fill that was stuck in my head.
> 
> general warning, i have some headcanons about wyverns in fodlan/faerghus/sreng; please don't mind me, i know it's not that deep.

Golden Deer students are known for their universal disregard for official regulations or limitations. But even among them, there’s one unwritten rule that everybody adheres to, without fail:

Do not try to touch Claude’s wyvern, lest you’re prepared to lose your arm.

It is a well-known fact that Damsa, Claude’s beautiful white mount, is a proud and stubborn creature. Like most of her kind, she doesn’t like strangers and reacts to any form of contact from anyone but Claude with viciousness and fury. There are countless stories illustrating it, too; like how she almost bit Marianne’s head off when the gentle soul tried to feed her, or how she was close to attacking Raphael as he was about to approach Claude on the battlefield. 

The news spread like a wildfire and in no time people started fearing her, keeping their distance in any way possible. The rule of Damsa became such an integral part of their everyday life that any further discussion of it ceased a moon or two into the school year. Why talk about it when everyone is already aware of the danger?

Well, turns out that it’s not everyone, Claude realizes with dread as he steps into wyvern stables for the evening feeding and sees Sylvain.

The newest addition to the Golden Deer class is standing less than an arm away from Damsa, with a stupid smile on his face and a fresh piece of meat in his hand. The said hand, covered entirely in blood and juices from the beef, hovers dangerously close to the wyvern’s spiky teeth - a silent promise of tragedy.

He’s too late, Claude  _ knows  _ and yet still stumbles forward, trying to get to Sylvain’s side and prevent the imminent disaster. “Damsa!”

The shout catches the redhead’s attention; he turns his head in Claude’s direction, his happiness replaced by slight confusion. But despite everything, Damsa doesn’t seem to be deterred by her master’s appearance, her whole being focused on the willing prey in front of her. There’s nothing more Claude can do besides watching in horror as she creeps up closer to Sylvain, mighty jaw opening, showcasing the lethal fangs as she reaches towards the redhead...

...and, as if it was the most natural thing in the world, willingly takes the offered meat while doing no harm to the boy feeding her. Claude stands there, dumbfounded, staring with disbelief as Damsa’s fangs prod around Sylvain’s fingers with carefulness reserved so far only to himself.

“Claude,” Sylvain drawls, his signature smile back on his lips despite the mess of fluids covering his hand and a giant wyvern consuming the fresh meat just mere centimeters away from his face. “No worries. I didn’t mean to steal your girl.”

“No, that’s…” he starts, trying to shake off the surprise and find the right words to reply. It’s absurd, no matter how he looks at it; wyverns are untrustful. Wyverns don’t tolerate strangers. Hell, it took Claude months to prove himself to Damsa as someone worthy of being her companion and win her over.

As if to spite him, the wyvern coos and licks Sylvain’s bloody hand, clearly displeased with the lack of attention.

Ridiculous.

“I’m a bit surprised, that’s all,” Claude finally answers, trying to mask his bewilderment by going back to his usual easy-going self. “She’s not very sociable, this one. I never knew she added you to her quite short list of friends.”

Sylvain chuckles at that; Claude notes that it sounds more natural than the redhead’s usual laugh reserved for the ladies. It’s a nice change, he muses, and he wouldn’t be opposed to hearing it more often. “I wouldn’t say we’re that close. It’s only the first time she let me feed her, after all.” To illustrate his point, he picks up another chunk of beef from the bucket and lets Damsa pry it away from his grip.

The wyvern, for reasons yet unknown to Claude, seems to be content with the new human coddling her. To his uttermost disbelief, she goes as far as to nudge Sylvain’s clean hand with her head - and Sylvain responds right away, brushing his fingers against the snow white scales.

“You’re such a good girl, aren’t you?”

Claude almost reels at the affectionate words that his wyvern accepts with another soft cry.

Absolutely. Ridiculous.

“You’re good at this.” It’s not luck or Damsa’s good mood, that much is clear. There’s something about Sylvain that makes her trust him - and honestly, Claude would be a liar if he said that he didn’t understand that. He was the one to invite him to the Golden Deer, after all. “Have you ever had your own wyvern before?”

Sylvain keeps on petting Damsa as he answers with a snort. “I wish. Wyverns are not very popular in Faerghus, you know.” A shadow of contempt crosses his face. “They’re not seen as… knightly, to put it nicely. Especially not in Gautier.”

_ Oh _ . That does ring a bell. “Right. Sreng.”

The redhead hums in agreement. “Not the best look for Kingdom’s soldiers to ride the same beasts as barbarians, huh.” He glows with barely concealed pride as Damsa accepts yet another piece of meat from him. “But you know how it is, forbidden fruit is the sweetest and all that stuff. So I always dreamed of having one.”

“And you’ve decided to, what?” Claude cocks his eyebrow. “Sneak in and see how it’d feel?”

Sylvain doesn’t even try to deny it. “Guilty as charged, Lord von Reigan. Your girl  _ is  _ beautiful, after all.” And before Claude has the time to react, he adds with a mischievous wink, “Just like her rider.”

Luckily, he has witnessed Sylvain’s flirting before, even if he’s never been on the receiving end of it. That helps him to keep his calm and - as he hopes - stop the treacherous blush from spreading on his cheeks.

To think that he’s weak for a stupid one-liner. But hey, Claude has a type and with every passing day Sylvain, with his perfect masks and bright smiles, half-truths of his past and white lies of the present, seems to fit into it more and more.

Not that Claude will ever let him know that.

“Flattery will get you nowhere, Gautier,” he sighs theatrically and reaches for the saddle. He starts fixing it to Damsa’s back, which earns him a puzzled look from Sylvain. He smirks, feeling good to be in control of the situation again. “I thought you said you wanted to give it a go, no?”

“W-what?” the redhead stutters. Nervousness is not the look Claude’s seen on Sylvain before but it definitely suits him. “As in, fly? Now?”

Claude chuckles in reply and opens the stable’s door. Damsa steps out, her white scales now turning orange in the warm glow of the setting sun. “Don’t worry, I’m a gentleman,” he teases and stretches out his hand. “I won’t let you fall.”

There’s a few long seconds when Claude is sure that he’s overstepped the boundaries; that again, he’s trying to befriend someone in the worst way possible, only to be pushed away and be alone. But then Sylvain - the same person that Damsa deemed worthy enough of her trust - smiles, albeit hesitantly, and reaches for Claude’s hand.

“I’ll hold you to that, Claude.”


	2. 1186

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm back with the continuation!
> 
> it's not directly linked with the previous chapter, but it has sylvain, claude and damsa, so i guess it counts?
> 
> warning for some blood and injuries. nothing graphic (i tried to stop myself from adding lots of gore, ok), but it's better safe than sorry.

The fight is a brutal one. Adrestian forces attack them with an unprecedented viciousness, as if the series of defeats in the previous moons had only made them all the more hungry for revenge. Even Edelgard herself joins the battle, supported by Hubert and Ferdinand; the two men crush everyone who dares to stand in the vicinity of their Empress, not leaving her a chance to even raise the axe.

Sylvain is so focused on movements of the deadly duo that he doesn’t notice how one of the archers breaks through their defenses and, in an act of desperation, shoots at Claude.

“Khalid!” he screams, watching in horror as one of the cursed arrows, a new toy developed by Hubert, hits its mark and lodges itself deep in the prince’s body. Before he’s able to understand what is happening, Khalid lets out a pained scream; his whole body goes rigid, and only the fingers clenched around the wyvern’s saddle keep him from falling down.

The years of Damsa’s training pay off as she does what she knows is the best in this situation - she lands next to Sylvain, hidden safely behind their line of defence, cooing softly at her unconscious master as if crying for help.

“Damsa.” Sylvain is by her side in no time, shaking hands reaching for Khalid. His healing magic is nothing compared to Hubert’s intricate spells, though, and even though he pours his whole energy into keeping the other man alive, desperately pressing the glowing palms to the side of the blackened wound, he knows it’s not going to be enough.

Hilda joins him, panting heavily as she wipes away the blood from her face.

“Fuck,” she mutters as she grabs one of her vulneraries and passes it to Sylvain. “He needs Marianne, right now. She’s the only one who’s able to counter this.”

“I know,” he replies, then brings the potion to Khalid’s lips; a few mouthfuls later the prince looks slightly better, with his muscles relaxing and breath less erratic than before. But the venomous arrow is still there, impossible to remove as it melts into his body, poisoning him further.

They’re running out of time.

Sylvain curls his fingers around Khalid’s hand; he knows there’s only one way to save him. “Damsa… she’s the fastest. She will take him home.”

He’s not fluent in Almyran yet, not as much as he would like, but he knows that the wyvern understands it better than Fodlani. And he needs her to do precisely as he says, because Khalid’s life is at stake - so he tries to remember every lesson that the Almyran prince gave him and forces the words out, their pronunciation still feeling foreign to his tongue. “ _Khanh berwem. Kemek peada kenad._ ” _Go home and find help_ , he pleads as he makes sure that Khalid is secured properly to the wyvern’s back.

As he ties the last knot, the man in question winces and opens his eyes slightly. “ _M'eshewq... ?_ ”

Sylvain would usually glow at the intimate pet name, but it’s clear that Khalid is drifting in and out of consciousness, not fully aware of what is happening. He gasps out in pain when he tries to move, the deep, bleeding wound and the toxin from the cursed arrow wreaking havoc in his body.

“Shhh, my love,” Sylvain whispers and presses a hurried kiss to the other man’s forehead.

If anything, he would prefer to throw everything away and leave with Khalid, hold him close and safe in his arms; but they’re so close, just an arm’s length away from the victory. He has to make his prince’s dreams come true, he cannot let himself this moment of selfishness.

“Damsa will take you to Marianne. You’re gonna be fine,” Sylvain murmurs against his lover’s lips. Khalid nods, even though he’s probably not understanding half of what he’s saying. “I will win this for you. Don’t you dare die on me now, _m'eshewq_.”

He kisses him one last time, tasting the bitterness of the vulnerary on his lips.

“ _Perewaz!_ ” Sylvain instructs Damsa one last time, and the wyvern takes off to the sky.

Sylvain doesn’t dare to stare at her silhouette for too long; he turns around, expression grim as he grabs the Lance of Ruin. Khalid’s blood is still on his hands, leaving the crimson imprints on the weapon, a brutal memento of the prince’s suffering.

He sets his eyes on Hubert.

“Don’t let them escape,” Sylvain commands the remaining soldiers, voice dripping with venom, and steps into the chaos.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and that's it! thank you for reading and indulging my sylvain speaking foreign languages kink! i'm sorry to anyone who might be speaking persian, i wanted to use it as a base for almyran, since, y'know. i love that headcanon.
> 
> feel free to hit me up on twitter and cry with me about claudevain.

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading!! if you'd love to scream with me about sylvain, claude or fe3h rarepairs, feel free to find me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/jikkyuu).


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